Kontakte(6:22)

According to the composer, “In the preparatory work for my composition Kontakte, I found, for the first time, ways to bring all properties [i.e., timbre, pitch, intensity, and duration] under a single control” (Stockhausen 1962, 40), thereby realizing a longstanding goal of total serialism. On the other hand, as one commentator says, “Kontakte is arguably the last of Stockhausen’s tape pieces in which serial proportions intervene decisively at anything but the broad formal level” (Toop 1981, 189).